How to Flat-Paint a Project Car - How To "Flat-Paint" A Badass Car - Project E-Rod Z28

In the Jan. '10 issue we introduced our new project car, a '79 Camaro Z28, and last month we installed its centerpiece, the GM Performance Parts smog-legal E-Rod engine package. When it came time to paint the car, we hit the jackpot. EDAG Inc. of Auburn Hills, Michigan, agreed to do the job. One of the leading automotive engineering firms in the world with a home office in Germany, EDAG provides every type of technical support to the global OEs, including concept car construction and paint. Many factory show cars you see at the SEMA show and elsewhere were painted by EDAG.

2/34The before-and-after is striking. We elected to replace the disco-era factory graphics and baubles, even adding Classic Industries' aftermarket rear wheel spats of the style used on the '80 to '81 Z28s but not the '78 to '79s. Contributing to the newfound appeal is the Dave Ross (Busta Design) idea of color-matching the trim, grilles, and wheel centers with the darker gray seen in the vinyl graphics...

The team at EDAG responsible for the E-Rod's paint-Chuck Cox, Bill Wilson, Jeff Hanley, Matt Ayers, and Cory Niemitalo, to thank them individually-have been at it long enough to develop their own shop lingo. These guys have had their eyeballs and well-sanded fingers on some of the top cars on the planet, and collectively they have but one word to describe any machine that meets their high standards: badass. Now, the car might be a million-dollar exotic or a backyard bomber, but either it's badass or it's not, and they know it when they see it.

Likewise, the EDAG guys have a single word to describe quality paint: flat. Flat is their highest compliment. By flat, pro painters don't mean suede or primer, they mean a finish that is exceptionally smooth and level, free of the usual surface imperfections. These include short peel, the classic orange-skin effect we know so well, and long peel, broader undulations they liken to cellulite. Peel and other defects on the paint's surface diffuse and scatter light in odd directions, dulling the gloss and obscuring the car's features. Flat paint reflects the light straight and true, flattering the car's natural highlights and making its lines and contours appear crisper to the eye. Flat paint can make a car look almost like it was milled from a steel billet.

3/34...It eliminates the jarring contrast of the black trim used on the Z28s of this era and ties the elements into visual cohesion. The Planet Color Big Bad Orange is true to Chevy Hugger Orange, but with the addition of a subtle golden metallic for a real glow in direct sunlight.

The EDAG crew's standards for flat paint are far beyond the best factory finish. Civilians may not see all the peel in a brand-new car, but these pros can spot it in a rainstorm at midnight. "You should be able to hold up a newspaper and read the fine print in the reflection," Hanley says. "That's flat paint. Peel makes the type fuzzy." What's the trick to flat paint? Unfortunately, there isn't one. It takes skill, experience, and hard work. However, impressively flat paint can be achieved by the dedicated amateur, he says. "What it takes is patience. How much time do you have?"

Here's a truism that's been beaten into a fine gray dust in every paint 'n' body feature ever published: No paint is better than the bodywork beneath it. Well, it's still true. However, this time we're going to skip over the basic bodywork. Hideous as it looked, our Camaro's sheetmetal was actually dry and straight, requiring very little mud-slinging except to flatten the usual die marks and elbow dents. We'll be picking up the story with the sprayed products, with the initial focus on the high-build polyester surfacer, which the EDAG crew block-sanded and loved on until the E-Rod was far straighter than any '79 F-body ever was when it left the plant.

4/34The work at EDAG began with paint removal and teardown. The Z28's existing finish was so thin and chalky that the crew decided not to bother with blasting or dipping; they just blew away the old paint with 80-grit paper and DA (dual-action) sanders. Disassembly is no place to try to save time with masking tape. "If it will be touching the new paint, it has to come off the car," Jeff Hanley says. Tip: Perform the body adjustments (doors, deck, and so on) before disassembly. It will make reassembly that much easier while greatly reducing the opportunities for damaging the new paint. At EDAG, they drill 1/8-inch holes through the hinge plates for Cleco fasteners to simplify alignment.

Like any craftsmen who really know what they're doing, the EDAG pros were a pleasure to watch. Each man may have his own pet tools and techniques, but when one stepped away from the car and another stepped in, the work proceeded seamlessly. They were like interchangeable parts in a machine. The lesson for us here: The methods may vary a bit but the objective does not. Each guy works to the same high standard for a quality surface. In the photos and captions, we've tried to include the techniques they use to identify that surface.

After the poly surfacer and block-sanding came another round of primer and sanding, then sealer, basecoat, and clearcoat. Now, where the typical collision shop will squirt a coat or two of clear followed by a quick cut and buff, then call it a day with a respectable finish, at this point the EDAG crew was just getting started. They shot five full coats of clear, providing sufficient material depth for multiple wet- and dry-sanding stages using 600- through 3,000-grit abrasives. On top of that came three more buffing phases. The process is exhausting and time consuming, but if you want truly flat paint, that's what it takes.

Because the E-Rod Z28 was designed to be a daily driver, it didn't get the full EDAG treatment with 3mm panel gaps and their other amazing show-car tricks. But the car did receive a top quality paintjob, because that's the only kind they know how to do. The E-Rod's paint draws praise everywhere the car goes, both for the knockout color and for the execution. Now there is some flat paint. If we may say so ourselves, we'd say it looks badass.